Obama refuses to leave seat on Rosa Parks bus

White House blog (Barack Obama was no civil rights activist in the American South. But he played one in this photo op)

NARCISSISM UPDATE:

When we left Barack Obama, the devout self-worshipper had just had the White House website add mentions of him to the online biographies of most presidents from the last century.

Not that anyone in particular had asked how the one-time pot-smoking teen related to hallowed White House chief executives from the nation's past. But obviously the fellow who grew up with an absentee father wanted the world to see some kind of connection to these more accomplished men.

As you know, John F. Kennedy invented the Peace Corps. But did you know (or care), for instance, that Obama issued an actual proclamation on the Corps' 50th anniversary? The vision and leadership in that news release is astounding!

Maybe you knew Calvin Coolidge was the first presidential voice carried on radio. But did you know (or virtually care) that Obama was the first to speak at a virtual townhall?

Then there was that strange day when the former state senator talked of all "those soldiers or airmen or Marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf." When so many of us had long thought of the U.S. military as fighting for all Americans.

"It is very rare that I come to an event that I am like the fifth or sixth most interesting person. Usually the folks want to take a picture with me, sit next to me, talk with me."

Now comes a fresh sample of the man with a hat size surely at least 11.

Last weekend contained an historic day in the calendar of American civil rights.

It was the anniversary of that day in Montgomery, Alabama when an NAACP worker, a black woman named Rosa Parks, refused a city bus driver's orders to give up her seat in the colored section to a white.

Parks was not the first black to do that. But her arrest for civil disobedience that day became the rallying focus for a bus boycott and widespread demonstrations. Parks said simply she grew "tired of giving in."

Although widely hailed for her pioneering role in later years, at the time Parks was fired from her job as a department store seamstress.

She later moved to Detroit, where she worked for nearly a quarter-century as secretary for a local congressman. She also wrote her autobiography.

Parks died in 2005 of dementia at the age of 92. She was the first woman to lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda.

NARCISSISM UPDATE:

When we left Barack Obama, the devout self-worshipper had just had the White House website add mentions of him to the online biographies of most presidents from the last century.

Not that anyone in particular had asked how the one-time pot-smoking teen related to hallowed White House chief executives from the nation's past. But obviously the fellow who grew up with an absentee father wanted the world to see some kind of connection to these more accomplished men.

As you know, John F. Kennedy invented the Peace Corps. But did you know (or care), for instance, that Obama issued an actual proclamation on the Corps' 50th anniversary? The vision and leadership in that news release is astounding!

Maybe you knew Calvin Coolidge was the first presidential voice carried on radio. But did you know (or virtually care) that Obama was the first to speak at a virtual townhall?

Then there was that strange day when the former state senator talked of all "those soldiers or airmen or Marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf." When so many of us had long thought of the U.S. military as fighting for all Americans.

"It is very rare that I come to an event that I am like the fifth or sixth most interesting person. Usually the folks want to take a picture with me, sit next to me, talk with me."

Now comes a fresh sample of the man with a hat size surely at least 11.

Last weekend contained an historic day in the calendar of American civil rights.

It was the anniversary of that day in Montgomery, Alabama when an NAACP worker, a black woman named Rosa Parks, refused a city bus driver's orders to give up her seat in the colored section to a white.

Parks was not the first black to do that. But her arrest for civil disobedience that day became the rallying focus for a bus boycott and widespread demonstrations. Parks said simply she grew "tired of giving in."

Although widely hailed for her pioneering role in later years, at the time Parks was fired from her job as a department store seamstress.

She later moved to Detroit, where she worked for nearly a quarter-century as secretary for a local congressman. She also wrote her autobiography.

Parks died in 2005 of dementia at the age of 92. She was the first woman to lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda.

AP (Rosa Parks)

Last Saturday was the 57th anniversary of the woman's catalytic act of defiance aboard Montgomery public transportation.

To honor the historic memory of civil rights leader Rosa Parks, Obama's White House website posted a photo -- not of Rosa Parks, but of Barack Obama.

It's an eerie photo. Obama was four years old and far away when that seminal civil rights event occurred.

But there he is in the staged photo inserting himself into history via a Michigan museum, sitting alone in the Parks bus forlornly looking out the window as if waiting for his stop.

It's tempting to write alternate captions for this awkward Obama photo op. But maybe we'll leave that for others in the Comments below.

Select market data is provided by Interactive Data Corp. Real Time Services. Price and Volume data is delayed 20 minutes unless otherwise noted, is believed accurate but is not warranted or guaranteed by Interactive Data Corp. Real Time Services and is subject to Interactive Data Corp. Real Time Services terms. All times are Eastern United States. *Reflects real-time index prices.